Published 4:00 am, Thursday, January 18, 2001

"You cannot be a truly great actress without a great soul, without being an essentially good person."

So says French film icon Leslie Caron, a soulful charmer if there ever was one.

Now, if you blink, you'll miss Caron in Lasse Hallstrom's acclaimed fable "Chocolat." But there was no way to miss the star when she appeared at New York City's Lowell Hotel, chic, glamorous without effort and loaded with style minus pretension.

Caron, who burst into the American film consciousness in "An American in Paris," is still recognizably Leslie Caron. The piquant face is without a doubt "Lili," "Gaby," "Gigi," "Fanny" and the girl from "The L-Shaped Room." If she has had "work," it is of the most discreet and expert kind. She is now Gigi, all grown-up and wise. During our half-hour chat, we even spoke of plastic surgery -- with plenty of off-the-record comments on this or that great star who has ruined his or her face.

"But you know," Caron said, knowingly, "it doesn't matter in the end what you do. You're always given away -- the hands, the neck. And then what happens when you're 50 or 60 and ready for great roles? There you are, all pulled and pushed. Maybe it even looks good, but you've plastiqued yourself out of wonderful roles because you look too young! Isn't that a joke?"

She is strong in condemning violence onscreen. ("I thought 'The Silence of the Lambs' was horrifying trash. But when I saw it, I was amazed at Anthony Hopkins' genius to have elevated that material.") She won't play murderesses, not for any amount of money. "I was offered this role, to play a woman who tries to kill her daughter. Twice. The money was very tempting. But I read the script. I mean, to try to kill your own child. That's pretty major. But I couldn't find much of a reason. And then, really, how sloppy. She tries to do it twice? What, she wasn't smart enough to get the job done right the first time?"

Of her 1950s starring career at MGM, with the studio system still flourishing, Caron said, "It was amazing. They coddled and pampered you to the point of keeping you totally childish and dependent. You were treated like an Oriental princess locked away in an ivory tower. And you were never alone. In the end, it was unbearably suffocating."

More delicious than "Chocolat" is Caron's inn and restaurant in the Burgundy countryside, La Lucarne aux Chouettes (the Owl's Window). "I didn't know what I was doing at first, and I'm not sure even now that I do, but it seems successful. People love it." (Imagine waking up in the morning, wandering into a ravishingly appointed dining room and having Leslie Caron ask if you want strawberries with your crepes!) And, like any smart modern businesswoman, Caron has her own Web site. So if you want to mix movie nostalgia and fine dining, click on www.lesliecaron-auberge.com.

ON THE FUNNY SIDE: Jaclyn Smith, comedian? Well, the old "Charlie's Angels" was kind of funny, if often unintentionally. Actually, Smith is stretching her comic talents on Ted Danson's sitcom "Becker." She has been asked to reprise her November guest-starring role as Danson's wacky ex-flame. Smith is said to be a remarkable comic and has great chemistry with Danson. Could this lead to CBS spinning the star off into her own series?

ENDQUOTE: The sweetest moment of Nora Ephron's party celebrating Tom Hanks' New York Film Critics award as best actor in "Cast Away" came when Hanks acknowledged Ephron's toast. "I made a New Year's resolution not to say this anymore, but I'm breaking it," he said. "When I lived here in 1966, I would never have believed I would have been in a room with all of you, and that my life would have turned out to be what it is today. I am very, very grateful." The "all of you" included Joan Didion, John Dunne, Frank Rich, Anna Quindlen, Delia Ephron and Nick Corman.